Top Hat Trouble!!!!

[Vcomb]

If you get more Polish and the same things happen you may want to document their downfall and then submit those images or video along with the bird to a veterinarian or state ag office for autopsy. Its hard to say without being able to see the birds first hand.

you said you are feeding them chick starter, maybe you need to switch to chick developer? It is a coarser ground feed which may be easier for them to pick up and to grind up in digestion.

in terms of crest trimming, its only necessary if you feel their vision is being obstructed. I generally trim it into a mohawk type look so that the eyes are not obstructed. It doesn't always needto be done though, and as stated there are points in the bird's development where the feathers grow bigger than the rest of the bird,but the bird eventually grows into them. You can start at a few months old if they need it.

 

[chickenma]

I had a couple and only 2 survive. I don't pamper my chickens , don't medicate. My experience was that they weren't strong chickens. But for the 2 that survive I can say they were pretty strong.
The weather in NC was crazy the last couple months but they didn't die on me. I don't trim the birds. They were fine.
A good thing to do is start from scratch and write everything down what happen. feed age sickness everything. Call it a survival journal.
Do all the polish die that you had? Or just a couple. Even if it is half of the polish that die , I wouldn't say you are doing some thing wrong. If you have some that are still alive , then the cause is the bird it self.
Birds are like people , some are strong and some are weak and we all die sooner or later. Way of nature keeping everything in balance.
I would not worry to much about it. That's life, keep on trying to keep them alive.
people said it is easy to keep chickens but it is not easy to keep them alive.
They can die for what ever reason.
good luck

 

[KinderKorner]

I'm with you. I tried polish. I went through about 30 chicks. Only one grew to adulthood. And he was an accident.

They seemed very weak, they would get squished, or die, or stay out in the rain.

I won't be having anymore of them. I couldn't keep the little buggers alive, all of other chickens do okay.

No clue what the problem was though. I just don't think they can live here with all the 'farm chickens'.

 

[ThePolishPrincess]

Simply said, some owners find that Polish are very difficult to keep, no matter how they are kept. Others will say that they are very easy to raise and their losses are few. What you're saying is really very wierd, because I've raised several Polish and only lost one. But the manner that we did lose that one Polish is very strange.

I DID have a Polish who would, every once in a while, become sickly. She wouldn't eat, drink, and sat there in a very tight 'ball', looking obviously unwell. (We only had one Polish at the time, and that was her.) She would walk slowly and her dail drooped, and her droppings didn't look normal either. Then, a few hours later, she'd pick herself up and act normally again. She'd do this every few months, for no apparent reason. Did I worry? At first, yes. After a while? It became a thing of hers and I told myself she would get better. No other birds became sick, and they all lived together. My only loss as far as Polish goes was that that same girl. She seemed fine when I saw her that morning. That evening, when I went to feed my flock, I found her dead. Never saw it coming. She was 2 years old, and I loved her very much. It was truely shocking.

I find Polish to be, for lack of better words, not so hardy. Some do well, others do not. I don't see anything wrong with how you raise them. Truthfully, I think you might actually keep them better than I or many other owners do. It might just be a bad brood, or a few bad broods. That tends to happen more often than not. If you find it in your heart, perhaps try again. I live in the north, and climate is very different, but I've ALWAYS found that my birds have a slight change in manner or behavior when the weather gets drastic. Polish can be fragile. Don't let it deter you. There's always a way.

 

[dappertophatter]

Polish are knuckleheads. (I can say that 'cause I breed them.) DO NOT EVER EVER EVER let them out when it is rainy or of their crests will possibly get wet- they'll get cold and not do well. Are you watering them from a bowl? They do beter if watered from a regular waterer.

 

[Soccer Mom]

Sorry about your birds. I don't know what's wrong with them, but I can say I haven't found my Polish to be less hardy. I don't do anything special for them. They run with my standard girls--even in the rain and snow.

I hope you solve the problem. They're some of my favorite hens.

 

[becky3086]

Quote:
I am still amazed by this. My splash Polish pen and mixed Polish pen have been out in the rain SEVERAL times this year because it seems to do nothing BUT rain. Not just the crests have been wet but they have been wet all over. They act just like any other chicken that gets wet but they don't die off. It poured a few days ago, rained a little more yesterday. It was below freezing last night and is only 35 degrees today. The splash and mixed Polish are wandering around and setting their wet selves in the sun to dry, preening and starting to look good.
Anyway, my point is there is something else going on here but I have no idea what it might be.

 

[ThePolishPrincess]

Yeah, I also never got the total dryness thing.

All of my Polish are water bugs. They'll go out in the worst weather to free-range with all of my other birds, and come back soaking wet by dusk. Crests will be dripping, as well as their whole body, depending upon the storm. They'd roost with everyone else and dry off totally by the next morning.

Sometimes their crests will freeze if they stay around in the snow, because the crest soaks up anything it touches like a sponge. But then they'd roost at night and their feathers will be normal the next day.

I'll agree with the bowl thing. I actually water them from a bucket, and have experience that they'll sometimes not watch what they're doing and get some of their crest wet. That's not good. I'm now filling the bucket a little less so they can carefully tip their heads in, and that has seemed to work.

 

[reesepoultry]

Not, sure what is going on then. i have never lost one. I think they are a pretty hardy chicken. I have never trimmed there top hats. I give them water out of a 2 gallon bucket. Hope you figure out what is going on.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

I think hte earlier suggestion to have a necropsy done was excellent advice. My polish seem as hardy as any of my other birds. I think some illness is going on--I would suggest getting some from another source and keep them in a different coop--away from your current polish and see if that has any impact. It may be that the coop is the cuase, or it may be that the birds are carrying some sort of illness.

One question I would ask is what do their droppings look like? Coccidiosis seems a possibility--not all strains cause bloody droppings, but can still cause death. My gut feeling would be to treat with sulmet or corrid and see if that makes a difference. Also, there are parasites that only get onto the birds at night, so if you have only checked them during the daytime you may be missing it.